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Ben Stein's Diary
A Very Special Graduation
And a very special grandmother.
Saturday
Long ago and far away, I became friends with a woman in a self-help
group in Malibu. She was a lovely, but extremely lonely and
confused woman in early middle age. Her mother, a German Jewish
woman from a small town near Frankfurt, had survived two years as a
slave laborer at a Siemens airplane parts plant in Berlin. Then the
mother had been transferred to slave labor at the labor (as opposed
to the death camp) part of Auschwitz. There, as a teenage girl, she
did heavy labor building barracks for the SS and cleaning them. She
was part of a transport of 112 girls from Berlin to Auschwitz.
By the end of the war, when she was forced on a death march back to Germany, barefoot in the snow, eight had survived.
The woman’s father, also a German Jew, had been fortunate enough to have been sent out of the country to work as a clerk at a tin mine in Bolivia where an uncle was an accountant. When he returned to Germany after the war, his entire family was dead, murdered by the Nazis.
The woman in my self-help group in Malibu had grown up in Queens, New York, and had become an art teacher at Jewish day schools in Los Angeles.
Shortly after I met her, she became pregnant as the result of a romance with an unavailable man. As so many modern women do, this woman worried about how she could support the baby and whether she should have the baby at all.
“You must have the baby,” I said. “You absolutely must. Hitler did not get away with exterminating your line of blood. You must not do it for him by abortion. I will make sure you do not go hungry.”
So, the woman had the baby, beautiful girl. I (I really must say my wife and I) have been supporting the baby ever since and the mother, in middle class circumstances and with private schools.
The child has grown up to be a hard working, lovely, dutiful child. She has a wide circle of friends, is beloved by her family, and earned excellent marks in a private Jewish day school.
Recently she applied to colleges and got into several fine ones. She chose one in New York where she will learn a great deal about theological studies and also get courses from a super fine college of liberal arts.
Tomorrow is her graduation day. Her grandmother, the Auschwitz survivor, is here in town for the event. I took the grandmother, whom I will call “C” the Mom, and the daughter to lunch today at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
It was a perfect, magnificent day. The palm fronds and the blue sky and the white tablecloths were art.
“What happened at Auschwitz if you didn’t feel well when you woke up?” I asked.
C laughed. “You made sure you felt well. If you didn’t feel well, you went to building 85 and then right up the chimney. You always felt well if you wanted to survive.”
“What if you made a mistake in your work?”
“Up the chimney,” she said.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (22) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 6.4.12 @ 6:53AM
What a beautiful story! Thank you for the uplift to a Monday morning, and God bless and keep this family always.
Who saves a single life, saves the world entire.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.4.12 @ 7:15AM
There are many lessons here. First, no woman should trust any man in his twenties, especially these days. They want sex and video games and not much more. They are all unavailable in a certain sense
I wonder where the better education was in Ben's story?
The grandmother from the death camp is a good lesson for all on unfettered and unquestioned government power.
Depending on the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare we could see American citizen's herded into medical camps where bureaucrats will make life or death decisions on your future. It won't be based on religion, just your chances of survival. You will go up the government chimney.
Lastly, congratulations to Ben for taking on what must have been a great financial strain to help raise and educate someone.
chuck| 6.4.12 @ 7:58AM
Thanks for the story Ben.
Random acts of kindness mean so much, for both giver and receiver.
Pecos Pete| 6.4.12 @ 8:08AM
Mr. Stein: Thank you for the history lesson and for your generosity!
Cobalt| 6.4.12 @ 8:21AM
Thank you and Mrs. Stein for the kindness you have showered on this woman and her daughter.
This lady's relatives are now in Heaven, and the Nazis are in Club 9 in Hell.
KyMouse| 6.4.12 @ 12:04PM
Cobalt, I hope you're right, but I believe Jesus:
Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, in John 3:14-18—
“…And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness [Numbers 21:4-9], even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
“He who believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God….”
God loved His Hebrew people so much that He rescued them from slavery in Egypt; but when they sinned against Him, He required them to look toward the bronze serpent on the pole if they wanted to be saved from the poison of the fiery serpents He sent to punish them. They were not automatically saved because they were His Chosen People.
Jesus explained that the bronze serpent was a symbol of the death He was about to suffer on the cross in order to save from the fatal poison of sin everyone who looks to Him in faith (obedient trust).
The need for faith in Jesus in order to be saved applies to my dear relatives as well to Ben and his friend. My dear father is separated from God forever unless he put his faith (obedient trust) in Jesus before he died.
cuban pete| 6.4.12 @ 8:44AM
As the speaker at my son's college graduation said many years ago, "Whatever success you may achieve in life,you will treasure most the acts of decency you performed.
Thanks, Ben for your's and Mrs.Stein's "act of decency" to this family.
Anthony| 6.4.12 @ 9:50AM
Credit where credit is due. An act of pure kindness and generosity. Well done Mr. Stein. You get a pass this week!!
However, I can't let this pass, does Obozo know it was the Russians who liberated this camp as opposed to one of his relatives?
That said, God bless America indeed!!! Pass it on to a lefty, apparently they didn't get the memo.
CJW| 6.4.12 @ 10:02AM
Terrific story, and good that Stein helped this family.
BTW, yesterday I watched Ferris Bueller with my HS daugher and her friends. Had to explain and correct Stein's comment to the class about Bush 41 saying Reagan believed in "vodoo" economics.
C. Vernon Crisler | 6.4.12 @ 10:11AM
America used to be beautiful. But it is not beautiful to all the millions of children who've been aborted since the early 1970s. And it's not beautiful to God when a country abandons moral principles and allows all sorts of unseemliness to come out of the closet.
It would be nice to be optimistic about America, but we've fallen a long way since WWII.
Mimi | 6.4.12 @ 1:45PM
Vern...I see signs...Pro-life over 50%, Many going back to the Founders and re-educating themselves on History and the Constitution.
We will know after this coming election...the numbers will tell us a lot if we are trending back to tradition and morals!
Mimi | 6.4.12 @ 1:52PM
Thanks Ben for saving this child by helping her mom...." LIFE IS STRONGER THAN DEATH" ( Benjamin XVI)
vitaglubet| 6.4.12 @ 12:37PM
Very nice story Ben. Sad that we have not focused more on folks that seem to spend their lives helping others. Reminds me of a friend of mine that passed away a few years ago. He was an outstanding High School Math teacher but more importantly, he quietly helped his students get to college and paid the tuition for several. Just a great guy who was the best friend of the only Medal of Honor (WWII) winner in my county. My friends only tribute was at his funeral (few knew of his wonderful generosity).
soldiermom11| 6.4.12 @ 12:51PM
This is a wonderful story. I went to a Catholic grade school where the nuns taught us about and showed us films of Auschwitz and the impressions left on the ceilings in the ovens made by the Jews trying to escape. It had a lasting effect on me and I believe that this kind of history should be taught in the public schools as well. Many Americans are so ignorant of the evil that exists this world that they don't believe it is there. We need to support Israel. As Israel goes, so goes the christian world and we should never forget.
Douglas | 6.4.12 @ 1:21PM
Thank you, Ben Stein. Wonderful teary-eye story. God bless you and your wife.
Magnus| 6.4.12 @ 2:42PM
Ben you resurged my day. Yesterday at church we were studying Eph 4:29 and I am sure you don't but it is about loving one another as Christ forgave tormentors from the cross.
I have a beautiful daughter who has fallen for a 1/4 Korean and 3/4 Chinese man,working here as a Engineer in a large widget company. I fought the Chinese, and the Koreans, I am fearful we may do so again, and Who will he fight with/for? We (dau and me) are in a fight and it is sooo small next to the America the Beautiful story you wrote. I hereby dismiss and forgive all except the small irritation of my world being upside down by invaders from everywhere.
I understand bldg 85 too well and will use that as our secret bonding code. A POW I forgive, BUT I understand.
Our common God we understand What you did was right out of the Good Samaritan series which I never understood any better than Prodigal son cleaned out brother's share and got the fattest lamb broiled.
Your wondrous tale makes my 1939-45 look like easy street.
I am sad for what was done to the innocent. My Battles today are My God, My country, My family, My self - in descending order.
I got lost in Israel and hitched a ride AWAY from the border with who ever we were opposing then-Syrians?] No bldg 85 available so they sent me (an American) packing Err walking.
But back to you! Thanks for all the wisdom, humor, and heartaches I've shared with you.
I hope you can find that peace! Shalom. Gotta go, am crying again.
Staregan| 6.4.12 @ 3:12PM
A Story to Remember! Thanks Ben!
kerrigan| 6.4.12 @ 3:53PM
Thank you for this article. There are so many young people in this world that don't believe the stories of the camps and ovens.
I'm a WWII history buff and have seen the camp at Dacha before they allowed it open to tourists. It is REAL, and thousands were killed because of their beliefs. It CAN happen again, even here in the US, if we don't take a stand against radical Islam.
GFFounder| 6.5.12 @ 12:32AM
The accumulation of my lifetime of acts of kindness only pales in comparison to the bravery and fortitude of so many of my fellow Jews who endured the holocaust. It also pales compared to the way you saved a life, and then paved the way for her success. God bless you Stein family, and God bless the USA.
marque lunettes de soleil | 6.5.12 @ 5:18AM
C laughed. "You made sure you felt well. If you didn't feel well, you went to building 85 and then right up the chimney. You always felt well if you wanted to survive."
captcouv| 6.5.12 @ 9:02AM
Great story about being human to another human. However, I think there is a disconnect in the story. "C" is identified as the Auschwitz survivor, and her daughter as the child Mr Stein and his wife supported - yet at the end of the story. a third lady is introduced and the the child is identified as the granddaughter who is graduating (of which the timeline more supports the granddaughter narrative). Thus, it appears that Mr. Stein and his wife supported survivor, daughter AND granddaughter. Well done.
Occam's Tool| 6.5.12 @ 1:00PM
Good job, Ben.